Siliguri: Police in Siliguri have arrested the general secretary of a Trinamool Chhatra Parishad ruled college student union for assault and bid to extort money from a student in the name of facilitating admission.

This is the first instance of a serving student union general secretary being arrested in connection with college admission racket.

Earlier on 2 July, police had arrested Tetan Saha a youth Trinamool leader and former general secretary of Seth Anandaram Jaipuria College in Kolkata for involvement in such a racket.

In case of Siliguri, the arrest of Tarun Sen, the general secretary of the student union at Kalipada Ghosh Tarai Mahavidyalaya at Bagdogra came today for the assault and bid to extort money from an Adivasi boy Felix Asutosh Kujur who had gone to the college yesterday for undergraduate admission.

According to Kujur, Sen and his aides demanded Rs 3,000 from him to facilitate the admission. When Kujur refused to pay saying that he has already processed his application on the online mode, Sen dragged him to the union room and assaulted.

“He tried snatching away my wallet and mobile phone and when I resisted all of them started beating me. Someone even hit me with a brickbat in the head. I later somehow managed to flee,” Kujur said today with his head wrapped in a bandage.

That was not all! After escaping, the assaulted Adivasi boy dialed the helpline number of the college. To his shock, the call was attended by none other than Sen who had assaulted him.

Today morning, the boy went to Bagdogra police station and lodged an FIR naming Sen and his aides. But with the police sitting over the matter, activists of the Progressive Workers’ Union resorted to a demonstration at Bagdogra police station during the day.

This finally compelled police to act and arrest the prime accused Sen in the afternoon. He has been booked under provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act which are non-bailable and mandates that an officer not below the rank of deputy SP must carry out the investigation.

NEWSMEN is an online news portal focused on news and views from Bengal and the Bengali / Bengal diaspora spread all over. Coinciding with the 73rd anniversary of the Quit India Movement, NEWSMEN went live over the world-wide-web on 09 August 2015.